People in entertainment have a motto: Never, ever work with children or animals. What I say is that they don’t know what they are missing!

The secrets to working with kids and families are lots of patience, taking your time and knowing what can be expected of the 'models'.

Here are some realistic results and poses you can expect from your 15 minutes of fame:

Newborn photography:

Those first  few days are so very precious, and every single moment, facial expression and even movement is photo-worthy.

Babies are only considered newborn for the first 2 weeks, and the best results are achieved within the first 10 days.

 

The very best thing about photographing them at this age is their amazing flexibility. We can safely maneuver the little bundle into the most precious little balls and achieve poses not possible after 2 weeks. As far as the eating portion goes, we can get some beautiful and tasteful pictures of mom breastfeeding baby if Mommy  and Daddy are comfortable with this. These pictures will be precious to the extreme in 20 year’s time, take my word for it.

If baby does not cooperate there is no reason to stress. I have gotten the most beautiful newborn pictures of infants that cried from beginning to end, and with some creative photo angles nobody will be the wiser. And we do catch the odd happy snap in between the crying, believe it or not. All the cuddling and consoling from Mom and Dad makes for lovely tender images anyway.

Some beautiful contrast photos can be taken as well, think big Daddy hands cupping little baby bundle. If possible, Grandma or Grandpa can join us for striking age-contrast images or 3-generation brag-shots.

Baby photography:

 

When 6 weeks arrive that very first gorgeous smile appears. They have a bigger repertoire of facial expressions but are usually pretty sleepy and placid and ‘pliable’.  It might take some funny antics from Mommy and Daddy to get the little star to get into character but the rewards are amazing.

From 6 weeks to 6 months there will be less sleeping and more interaction. Although no longer ‘pliable’ and not all that placid all the time , you will get beautiful shots of that little personality emerging . Although not fully able to sit by themselves, they have more head and body control and have a bit of a say in the artistic process so to speak.

Older babies and children:

From 6 to 12 months, some very exciting milestones are reached and can be captured at every stage. The sitting, the first tooth, the crawling, the boisterous laughing and general clown antics are inexhaustible as far as baby pictures go. Again it will take participation from Mommy and Daddy to entertain baby and act as personal stylists, straightening a dress or smoothing a stray hair for the perfect picture. My suggestion is to wait until baby can sit well unassisted to come for the 6-12 month shoot.

Ages 12 to 24 months are the months of great fun and games for the photographer. The mobility has set in in full force and sitting still for a photo seems very boring when there is a big world to conquer.  These  little  jitterbugs will unfortunately not listen to commands like smile serenely, lean forward a tag or tilt your head slightly to the left, but the pictures captured will be oh so natural and will speak a thousand words!

After the age of two years, we can incorporate a lot of posing, playing and costumes  for  fun. The sky is the limit here and these posers will most probably enjoy every last bit of the attention once they get used to the camera.  I try and spend some time, even just 5 minutes, to play and interact with the models, and they warm up to the photographer very soon.

 

I often get questions from parent about the best time of day to schedule photo sessions.

Here are my general guidelines...